


Kitty Noir

by wispedheart



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, chat the cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-05-19 18:45:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5977300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wispedheart/pseuds/wispedheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chat had always loved cat puns. Of course, turning into a cat was something less of a clawsome occurrence, and more of a catastrophe. And now Marinette has to figure out how to keep a cat a secret. To top it all off, Adrien goes missing, and she can't use her powers. Could anything get worse?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Disappearance, Reappearance.. Missappearance?

The latest akuma was, in a word, infuriating. It wasn’t that he was overly powerful, or anything of the like. No, it was the fact that he teleported away _every time_ she got within 10 feet of him, dragging on a fight on the _one night_ Marinette actually had somewhere to be. Nino was hosting a party, and Alya had managed to find out that Adrien was going, as well.

The latest akuma was, in a word, really, really _irritating._ It wasn’t that it was powerful, or even very much of a challenge, other than the fact that it could teleport for a distance. No, it was the fact that he chose to appear on _Christmas Eve._ Marinette wasn’t really sure what had happened, but she kind of wished it could have happened on another day. _Any_ other day would have been nice! She’d been forced to disappear in the middle of a Christmas party, and _Adrien_ had been at that party too! Granted, her friends probably thought she had been transported to and trapped inside the town hall, as the man dubbed “Abrappear” had done to most of Paris’ citizens. Unless they were there too… She hoped not, considering she’d told them to hide.

Even when she escaped though, the pandemonium that was going on through the streets made it hard to find a good place to transform. Luckily, though, she’d managed to transform behind a trashcan, as disgusting as it sounded. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, she guessed.

Running along a roof, she jumped into the air, doing a flip (which may or may not have just been for fun) before landing lightly on the ground, looking around. “Where are you?” she muttered, slightly frustrated. She’d been looking for a while now, and she wanted to get this done before she ran out of time. Otherwise she’d have to wait for Tikki to recharge, and she’d _never_ get back to the Christmas party.

“Oh, you must have missed me, my lady,” the familiarly flirty voice rang above her. Instinctively, Ladybug looked up, smiling at the sight of her partner perched above her on a streetlight. His eyes glowed slightly in the growing darkness, giving him more the look of a cat than usual.

“Not you,” she replied, waving a hand for him to come down. Obediently, Chat dropped from the pole, landing beside her with an eerie silence only a creature of the night could achieve.

“This guy’s looking to be a bit of a pawful,” he said, glancing at her just barely before continuing. “I couldn’t find him anywhere.”

“He seems to only appear where a lot of people are,” Ladybug replied, leaning back against the pole and crossing her arms across her chest. “All I know is that he’s taking them to town hall. I tracked him all the way out here, but he disappeared a few minutes ago.”

“Lookie who’s the cat this time around. Can’t find your mouse, my lady?”

“You couldn’t find him either, and you’re supposed to be the one who’s good at catching mice, _Chat,”_ she shot back, though with a smile on her face all the while. “We should probably head back to town hall. He’ll probably show up again with more people to drop off, and I want to be there when he is.” Almost in perfect synchronization, the two turned, leaping back up to the building tops and racing off.

 

* * *

 

 

They reached the town hall at what seemed to be the perfect time. Abrappear lay just ahead, standing on the roof and looking around imperiously. He looked over in their direction, and Ladybug quickly span, grabbing Chat by the tail and pulling him behind a chimney stack, ignoring him as he let out a mewl of indignation.

“Our best chance is to sneak up on him,” Ladybug said, glancing behind at Chat. She once again was surprised at the amount his eyes were glowing. She wasn’t used to akumas appearing at night, generally they decided to come around during the day. He looked like one of those cute cat lamps.

Shaking her head, Ladybug attempted to pull her mind back on track. “Can you go around a bit? We’ll attack from either side. My best guess on where the akuma is hiding right now is the bow.”

“The little girl’s one? Purrfect.” Chat replied, almost absentmindedly, peering around the chimney stack and peering out. He waited a moment, then was off, hopping along the nearby buildings, nothing more than a flitting shadow to her eyes by the time he was more than 5 or so meters away. After giving him a few moments, Ladybug followed suit, hopping the other direction and heading straight for the building. Jumping down, she pulled out her yo-yo, swinging it at a streetlamp and pulling her legs up, the rush of fear she once would have gotten at doing such a thing buried in what now was the only thing she experienced when jumping around as Ladybug: exhilaration. She swung under the streetlamp at high speed, catapulting herself into the air, releasing the yo-yo from the lamp as she did so. It came up instead now, swinging above her head in a bright red circle.

That was what probably ended up being her downfall. Abrappear saw her coming, turning and staring at her, expressionless, before disappearing into thin air, leaving her to land hard on the roof, immediately straightening up to look wildly around. A screech soon caught her attention, and she whirled around, her eyes widening.

Chat had been lucky for once. The akumized man had appeared on the same part of the roof that Chat had been about to land on, giving him an easy opening to drop down on the man’s shoulders, clinging tightly to his back. “Gotcha!” he yelled, smiling widely.

“The akuma, Chat!” Ladybug began to swing the yo-yo once more, springing into motion after the two. Chat didn’t respond, but he evidently heard, given that he immediately began grasping at the man’s hip, where the bow lay clipped to the belt. Then, they were gone again. “Oh, great,” she muttered, doing a quick little 360 spin. Where were they going to pop up? And when they did, would she be fast enough and close enough to grab that bow before they were gone again? Her earring beeped in her ear, making her wince slightly. She hadn’t used Lucky Charm, but she’d been in this form for so long that Tikki must be getting exhausted.

“Get off, you mutt!”

Once again, Ladybug whirled, finding Chat still clinging on a –now very angry- Abrappear, his claws sunk deep into the man’s clothes. She knew him well enough to know he was probably focusing on making sure he didn’t hurt the man, preventing the claws from doing what their very purpose was.

As soon as she’d set sight on them, she ran forward for a third time, swinging the yo-yo, and praying it hit its mark.

Luck had her side, as usual. The yo-yo snapped hard against the bow, breaking the clip holding it, leaving the item to fall to the ground. Chat let out some weird noise (probably some sort of cat sound) then leapt off of Abrappear, both hands clapping down over the bow as he landed in a crouch. That crouch turned quickly into a roll, and Ladybug found the bow flying towards her as soon as he was on his feet again.

“No!” the akumized victim yelled, just as Ladybug’s fingers closed down around the bow.

“Finally,” Ladybug sighed, ripping the bow neatly in half and then dropping it to the ground. That done, it took only moments to catch the akuma, and heal what had been hurt since the whole fight started.

“What was that about catching mice, my lady?” Chat asked, wandering over to her as she watched the now white butterfly flap away.

“Oh, shush,” she replied, pulling up an arm and lightly shoving him away with a smile. “You got lucky for once.”

“Even the most unlucky can have one shining moment,” Chat replied smoothly. At that very moment, both of their miraculouses went off, their beeps sounding loud, even though they were in the center of a city. Their eyes met, and Ladybug shrugged her shoulders.

“That’s my que,” she said, turning to leave. Behind her, another beep sounded, causing her to pause. Hair fell over her eyes as her head tipped to the side, curious at why his ring was beeping so soon after beeping a first time. “Is your kwami trying to tell you something?”

Chat shrugged, lifting his hand to look at his ring. Ladybug leaned forward to look at it as well, frowning at the sight of 2 paw pads still shining brightly in green. “I don’t know. I guess to hurry? If anyth-“

He didn’t even get to finish his sentence before a flash of green light went off. Ladybug yelped, her hands whipping up to cover his eyes. Really? Why would he transform back on the _roof of town hall?_ But, his ring had said he still had time… was his kwami trying to mess with him? Could kwamis undo transformations if they wanted to? Tikki never had done that to her…

Her thoughts were interrupted at the sound of a loud meow. Was Chat trying to be funny? “Hurry up and run,” she told him, trying not to sound irritated. She’d transform back too if she didn’t move soon enough. “I have to hurry.”

No reply came for a moment, then the sound of a meow came once again, though it was louder. This time, something small patted on her foot as if trying to get her attention. “We can’t reveal our identities, remember? We agreed.”

“Mrow!” This time, a weight suddenly settled on her shoulder, pushing her back slightly with its force. Letting out a scream, Ladybug fell back, her hands flying out in an attempt to balance herself. She landed hard on her back, gasping as the breath went out of her, eyes snapping open wide. Her first sight upon this action left her mouth snapping open as well.

A black cat stood on her chest, looking down at her somewhat… irritatedly, if that made any sense at all. Familiar green eyes stared into her own, wide with something she couldn’t place. “Cat,” she said, her brain momentarily pausing. “Cat… Chat Noir?”

It made sense, in a way. A black cat with green eyes, and a large golden bell adorning a collar hanging from its neck. Slowly, Ladybug sat up, watching as the cat immediately jumped off of her, landing to the side and looking at her, meowing again.

“Oh, god, Chat _what happened!?”_


	2. A Bit of an Un-fur-tunate Evening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided I'd let this out a day early, since it's Valentine's Day and all XD (I totally did not accidentally update this chapter on The Egg by accident at first)

          Chat was… a cat? An actual cat? Why was he an actual cat!? The ears and tail he usually wore were fake! She knew they were, she’d had to tug them to stop him from doing something stupid who _knew_ how many times. And it had to be him, he had the bell, the _same_ bell Chat wore. To top it off, he definitely knew her somehow, considering the way he wouldn’t leave her alone. Even now he looked up at her worriedly, circling her feet as she stood, softly mewing all the while.

          “Okay, okay!” Ladybug bent down, waving her hands at him. “We’ll figure this out, okay? I’ll ask Tikki what’s going on,” She jumped slightly as her earrings beeped again, signaling that she was going to change back soon. Inwardly, she groaned. She’d forgotten about the time limit. “But for now…” she hesitantly held her arms out to him. Chat looked at her for a moment in confusion, then seemed to get the message, standing up and jumping up into her arms. She straightened up, shifting him to one arm and pulling out her yo-yo.

          “Hold on,” she told him, tightening her grip a bit before running towards the edge of the roof and jumping free, rolling her eyes at the vibrating coming from the animal in her arms. It seemed that Chat had figured out how to purr. “This isn’t funny, Chat,” she said, having to speak a bit louder over the wind as they swung from building to building. “How are we supposed to turn you back? What if we can’t and you end up a cat forever?” Quickly, she glanced down at him, just as he stopped purring and looked at her with wide, panicked eyes.

          “Exactly,” she replied, turning her attention back to what she was doing. She could hear people going around below, the occasional increase of babbling when somebody spotted her soaring above. Thankfully nobody seemed to notice the cat in her arms, or nobody seemed to ask.

          It wasn’t until she was only a few houses away from her roof that she realized her dilemma. Letting out a small gasp, she slid to a halt, her eyes popping open wide. Chat looked up at her questioningly. “How am I going to do this?” she said, looking down at him worriedly. “My transformation will run out.” Her only reply was a wave of a tail. Hopefully she’d figure out how to communicate better soon, she felt like she was commentating.

          “Wait here,” she told Chat, setting him down on the roof next to her. “I’ll be back.” Not waiting for a reply, Ladybug turned and raced off, dashing onto her balcony without a backward glance and bursting inside, looking wildly around her room for something – anything that could help. Her eyes fell on a ribbon on her desk, and barely a second later it was in her hands, flapping in the wind as she rushed back out again, the door slamming behind her like a crack of lightning. Ladybug winced, hoping her parents wouldn’t hear and come to check. After all, she was supposed to be at a party…

          Swinging up onto the roof where she’d left Chat, Ladybug looked around for a moment, squinting her eyes in the night. When had it fallen? She felt as though it had only been dusk moments ago… Pushing the thought aside for later, she bent down in front of Chat. “If you don’t want to stay out in the cold, you’re going to have to listen to everything I say,” she told him, her voice stern. “Now, close your eyes.”

          Chat looked at her silently for a second, then obliged, glowing green orbs disappearing behind midnight eyelids. Tentatively, she reached out, pressing the ribbon in front of his eyes and beginning to tie it. As she did so, her earrings beeped one last time, and her transformation wore off. Chat’s ears pricked up at the sound, but he made no attempt to look, his tail waving back and forth while she finished up tying the ribbon over his eyes.

          “Of all the luck…” Marinette sighed, lifting Chat into her arms before standing up and looking around the roof. “You think there’s a fire escape?”

          “Probably,” Tikki said, floating over to flop on her head. “And luck had nothing to do with it this time. I have limits, too.”

          Smiling, Marinette took a hand off of Chat to reach up and pat the little kwami. “I know, Tikki. Let me get inside, and then we can figure this out.”

          Chat still through all of this, though his tail twitched back and forth, as if agitated, and his ears stayed pushed as far forward as possible. Teasingly, Marinette flicked the tip of his ear, giggling at the surprised jerk she got in return. “Let’s go, kitty,” she said, walking towards the edge of the roof and looking down, distractedly unclipping her purse so that Tikki could sneak inside. It took a bit of wandering before she found the fire escape, but at least there was one. Being stranded on a roof until Tikki had rested enough for her to transform would have been anything but fun. Especially on Christmas Eve… The climb down was a challenge as well. Apparently, being blindfolded and held midair with one arm didn’t appeal that much to Chat, considering the way he clung to her the whole way down. She almost felt bad at him, but at the same time, the claws that poked her skin through her jacket kept her just on the edge of actual feeling. Even so, she made it to the ground without falling, and managed to sneak out the alley without any strange looks as well. Now all she had to do was get inside and up to her room without her parents seeing the cat…

          She walked until she reached the point where the bakery was visible and paused, “Uhh…” she said, pausing and putting her back against the phone pole. The cold was beginning to get to her now that she wasn’t moving as much, even her breath was fogging in the night air. “We should be closing soon… I could sneak in the back?” Luckily, though people were out, nobody seemed to question Chat, once again, though a few people gave her strange glances, as if she were abusing him by putting a ribbon over his eyes. Well, it wasn’t as if she’d had a choice. Belatedly, Marinette realized what she said and inwardly winced. There she went, giving Chat a hint at who she really was. She needed to be more careful about what she gave away. Another person passed by, looking at her, and she smiled nervously, petting Chat’s back a few times as if to reassure them that she was a good person. Chat, not knowing what was going on, simply purred in reply, his tail reaching up to flick at her cheek, probably in his attempt of flirting. “Your coat is soft,” Marinette said distractedly, still thinking about how to get inside. Of course, stroking his ego probably wasn’t a good idea. If anything, he began purring harder.

          Letting out a sigh, Marinette finally gave in, sneaking closer to the bakery until she could just see through the windows. _Yes!!_ She was in luck! Nobody seemed to be downstairs. Hurriedly, Marinette rushed to the door. The doorbell jangled as she stepped inside, and she winced, having forgotten about it. She listened, but she couldn’t hear anybody respond to the noise. Sighing in relief, she made her way towards the stairs, huffing softly. Chat needed to lay off of the… well, whatever it was he ate. He was heavy!

          “Marinette?” a voice called, just as she made it to the top of the stairs. Eyes widening, Marinette quickly clapped her hand over Chat’s pricked ears, then rushed up into her room, pushing open the door a bit and roughly shoving Chat inside.

          “Stay here, _don’t move and don’t touch anything!”_ Then she dropped the door in place, rushing back down the steps just as her mother appeared at the bottom.

          “Weren’t you at a party with your friends, Marinette?” she asked, watching as the young girl hurried to the bottom of the stairs. Quickly, Marinette slapped a hand over her mouth, letting out a yawn.

          “I got tired and came home,” she said through the yawn. “I thought I’d sleep so that I could wake up early and spend the day with you guys!”

          “Ah,” Sabine simply smiled at her, and nodded. Sometimes, she gave Marinette the distinct impression that she was simply seeing right through whatever she was telling her. “Well, sleep well then, dear.”

          Nervously, Marinette nodded, backing up before stumbling a bit on the bottom stair. She managed to catch herself before hitting the ground, and glanced around at her mother, laughing nervously before rushing up the stairs.

          Chat, naturally, had moved, just as she’d told him not to. Not that far, however. At least he hadn’t taken off the blindfold. He’d dealt with running into things instead, judging by the way he ran into the ladder up to her bed as she got inside. “Chat!” she whispered, pushing the door down behind her and making her way over to him. “I told you to stay.”

          She could almost hear the sassy reply as he turned his head towards her, flicking his tail reproachfully. _I’m not a dog, my Lady._ And then maybe some sort of pun? Well, knowing him, that was probably correct.

          “Come here,” she said, picking him up, ignoring the surprised mew the sudden yank into the air wrung out of him. Carrying him over to the desk, she set him down, giggling slightly as he sat down haughtily, flicking his tail around his paws. He seemed to be taking this whole ‘cat’ thing a lot better than she’d thought he would. “Tikki,” Marinette said, pulling her bag off and opening it up. “There are some leftover cookies in the tin that R- uhh… my friend made.”

          “Okay!” the little kwami flew out of the bag, making her way over to the tin and getting started only after picking up the tin and flying to the far edge of the desk. Marinette sat down in her chair, looking after her curiously. “Do you know what’s going on here, Tikki?”

          Pausing, Tikki looked over at her, crumbs already surrounding her little mouth. “Yes,” she said, setting down the cookie and floating over to her. “Plagg is sick.”

          “Plagg? That’s Chat Noir’s kwami, right?”                                                  

          “Yeah. It’s a power sickness, Ma-Ladybug,” Tikki quickly corrected, smiling apologetically at her. “Plagg can’t control his abilities right now. So, when Chat was transforming back, he lost control, and instead of turning him human again, he went the other direction and used _too_ much. Now they’re both an actual cat.”

          “Plagg is stuck in there too?” Marinette glanced over at Chat, who meowed in irritation, probably at the word ‘stuck’. Maybe? Well, who knew? She’d never had a pet before. “But doesn’t this use a lot of power?”

          “That’s part of it. Except, it’s like a switch that’s broken. He can’t turn it off, but it won’t just turn off when it runs out, either.”

          “What’ll happen if it runs out?”

          Tikki looked nervous. “The last time this happened, we tried not to find out.”

          Marinette came to a sudden realization, and looked over at Tikki sharply. “Can you catch it?”

          “Yeah,” Tikki said, floating away again as she mentioned it. “I wouldn’t suggest turning into Ladybug for a while, just in case.”

          “Wha- _Who’s going to protect Paris?”_

          Tikki looked at her mournfully, then turned, going to the cookie tin and picking one up, and tossing it over to her. “Let’s just hope Plagg gets over it before anything happens!”          

          Shaking her head, Marinette held the cookie out towards Chat’s nose. He leaned forward, his nostrils twitching a few times as he took in the scent. He seemed almost conflicted for a moment, his tail lashing back and forth, and his ears even moving forward and backwards a couple times. Then he finally gave in, reaching out and taking the cookie gently in his teeth. Leaving him to eat, Marinette went over to the cookie tin, picking it up and moving it over to the ladder of her bed, setting it on one of the rungs. “You make sure to stay far away from him then, Tikki,” she said. Leaning down, she pulled out a spare blanket from a folded pile she kept underneath her bed. Making her way back over to the desk, she pulled the chair out, unfolding the blanket and setting it on the chair, rumpling it a bit. Cats liked to roll in blankets, right? She wasn’t sure where she’d heard that… probably the internet.

          “Chaat,” she called, leaning down look at him. He attempted to return that look in his own way, mostly by looking in the general direction he thought her head was, and meowing to show he was listening. “You’re going to have to sleep on the chair tonight. We’ll figure out what’s going on soon. Maybe the library or the Egyptian exhibit will have a clue of some sort. If we’re lucky, we’ll have you back home before the end of tomorrow, and nothing too bad will happen, right?” As she spoke, she lifted Chat into her arms for what felt like the millionth time that night (probably to his greatest desire ever) and setting him down on the chair, lifting up the edge of the blanket to throw it over his back.

          “Uhh,” she said, pausing. What did you say to your partner-who-was-also-a-cat-and-now-had-to-sleep-on-your-chair-so-nobody-found-out-that-your-partner-had-turned-into-a-cat when they were in a bad situation? “Good night, Chat Noir.”

          Great, Marinette, just great. This poor guy is stuck in a body that isn’t his own and is going to miss out on Christmas, and all you can say is ‘good night’? Shaking her head, Marinette resisted the urge to slam her palm into her forehead. She stood for a moment, wanting to say something more, but not sure what to say. Finally, she reached out tentatively. Her fingers brushed Chat’s head and she pulled back for a moment, unsure. Eventually, though, she gave in, reaching out to scratch behind Chat’s ear. He leaned into the scratch, the purr stuttering to a start again like a motor. “Silly kitty,” Marinette giggled, turning and heading to her closet. Despite the fact that he had a blindfold over his eyes, she still hid while she changed into something a bit better to sleep in. Tikki, having finished up on the cookies, floated up to the bed ahead of her, taking a wide berth around Chat as she did so.

          Taking one last glance over at her chair, and the dark form currently curling up on the blanket, Marinette sighed. Sometimes, she wondered how he dealt with the bad luck so well. It wasn’t a question she was sure she could answer, however. So, instead, she simply flicked out the lights.


	3. Cat's out of the Bag... or Blindfold???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops, accidentally posted chapter 4 for a second there! This is chapter 3 XD I'll go ahead and post chapter 4 in just a moment, I'm not that mean.

Surprisingly, the cat was the first to wake. Adrien had always been one to wake up early, so despite Plagg’s lazy personality, green eyes opened far before Marinette or even Tikki was aware of the world. Unfortunately, another thing he’d always been was a restless sleeper. So, when he awoke, Adrien found himself not staring at his ceiling (as his sleepy mind assumed) or even the darkness of the inside of a ribbon, but a strange room. Automatically, his head shot straight up in confusion. Where was he? “What?” he said, attempting to sit up. Once again, his expectations were thwarted, however, as a loud meowing sound, rather than his voice, echoed through the room, followed by a loud jingling thump as his motion of ‘sitting up’ caused him to overbalance instead, sending him tumbling to the floor.

          It must have been the thump when his head hit the floor that woke him up, as by the time he was pushing himself to his paws, he remembered everything that had happened last night, and a chill went from his ears down to his paws.

          He was supposed to be at a shoot right now.

          It was Christmas.  

          He was at Ladybug’s house.

          His father was going to kill him.

          _He was at Ladybug’s house._

          Stopping himself, Adrien took in a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. First, he needed to figure out what was going on, right? And figure out how to get that thing around his head again, or Ladybug would think he took it off voluntarily and then she’d kill him before his father had a chance to. Glancing up in the direction he’d fallen from, he found himself looking at an office chair, the edges of a blanket peering at him from the sides of the seat.

          _Okay…_ he thought, turning and crouching down, trying to ignore the fact that his tail instinctively began to twitch back and forth. Concentrating on the edge of the chair, he bunched his muscles up and then leapt up.

          He overshot. By a lot, actually. Instead of landing on the chair, he soared right over it and smacked straight into the edge of a desk just beyond it. His body tumbled to the floor once again, though not until he managed to land on the edge of the chair and send it rolling across the room. _Meowch_ , he thought, ignoring the sense he got that Plagg was extremely amused by this situation.

          Ladybug must have heard the ruckus that time, because a soft noise came from the other side of the room. Adrien shrank into a crouch, his eyes flickering in the direction of the noise. Nothing much to see however, as the bed in question was hidden high in an alcove, his height leaving his eyes to stare only at the underside of the bed. Partially relieved and partially disappointed, he turned back to the chair, focusing his eyes on the edge before leaping once more.

          Triumph! He landed safely in the chair, if a bit off-center. At least he didn’t kill himself this time. Circling a few times, he finally found the ribbon peeking out from under a fold in the blanket. Gently, he pulled it out with his teeth, dropping it at his paws and looking at it blankly. It’d untied. _I’m very much dead,_ he thought, letting out a sigh and flopping down onto his stomach, his head coming to rest on his paws. _If only Plagg could tell me what to do, but I feel like he would have put his input in by now. Probably something to do with cheese…_

          As if right on cue, his stomach let out a small grumble. _Oh, great._ Standing up again, he looked over at the desk next to him. Ladybug had said something about cookies last night… maybe her kwami had some leftover? Carefully, Adrien leapt his way onto the desk, sniffing curiously. It was almost immediately he caught the scent he was looking for: chocolate. His ears pricked up, and he followed it, finding himself soon looking at a tightly shut tin can next to a picture of himself.

Wait.

_What?_

He double-took, and found that he hadn’t just confused himself. There it was, a picture of his face, _framed,_ and sitting on the desk in front of him. _Why does Ladybug have a picture of me? Well, the Adrien me._ Did she like him?

Even that mere thought had his tail tip flicking back and forth happily, and a small purr rumbling in his throat. Sitting down, he let his back paws flop out in a probably not-very-catlike manner, the back of his mind noting that he had grey tips on his hind paws. He stared at the cookie tin, trying to calm his happiness long enough to figure out how to open these things. Honestly, even as a human he had trouble opening some of them, but his stomach was practically insisting he open it or die trying.

“It’s Christmas!”

          Adrien jumped up at the scream, the fur on his back coming to stand on end as he whipped his head back and forth, eyes wide. Despite his resolve not to, he found himself looking at the bed as a shape came barreling out, flying down the ladder and jumping to the floor. Recognition hit his eyes before his paws could, and so he froze for the second time that morning, disbelief coursing through his veins.

          “M-Marinette?” he asked, forgetting for a moment his state, only reminded by the sound of a small mew escaping him rather than his voice. Marinette is Ladybug? _Marinette is Ladybug?_ She’d been sitting behind him _the entire time?_ _And he hadn’t noticed?_ He didn’t know whether to be excited or just plain ashamed of himself.

          At the sound of his “voice”, Marinette turned, the expression that came to her face reminiscent of the one Adrien himself wore. They both stared for a moment, equally frozen in complete impasse at what to do.

          _Marinette is Ladybug._

          “I-you-blind- _how?”_ Marinette finally managed to get a few words out, though they were random and held practically no connectors at all. Though, the word ‘blindfold’ gave him enough of an idea at what she was getting at. Crouching slightly, he turned, ignoring his hungry belly for a moment to make his way over to the chair, hopping down and picking up the ribbon in his teeth, holding it up at her. _Marinette is Ladybug._ Well, she did look like her, it made sense. They had the same cute little pigtails.

          Marinette seemed to not know whether to panic or stay calm, reaching out with a shaking hand and taking the ribbon with a sigh. “Please tell me it fell off and you didn’t pull it off.” Even that just small motion sent a shiver of recognition through him, and it took him a moment for her actual sentence to process in his brain, his response a few (somewhat awkward feeling) nods of his head. _Marinette is Ladybug._ The thought kept recurring in his mind, making him want to both purr in happiness and scream in frustration. No longer was she untouchable. No longer did he have no chance at gaining her affections. She was visible, she was human, and if anything, that only made him fall even more.

          Lifting her hands to her head, Marinette shook it, containing what he thought was the same panic he was barely retaining. He wanted to tell her she was safe, that he wouldn’t tell anybody, that this wasn’t as much as a catastrophe as it would seem- no, excellent pun, but not the situation. These cat vocal chords were killing him, no matter how much he loved cats. As it was, he simply stood, managing a graceful jump off of the chair and a quick jog to her feet, tapping her sock-covered toes with a small forepaw, letting out the loudest meow he could muster, in hopes of getting her attention before she had a full breakdown. _Marinette is Ladybug._

          “Marinette? Are you okay? Come on down here!”

          Both of them jumped, a small yelp escaping the girl above him as she flailed, leaving him to quickly dodge to avoid her feet as she ran to her desk. “Oh no!”

          He followed her over, not quite sure what she was doing, but a quick realization that she was leaving the room sent him leaping onto the desk again, mewing at her before bumping the tin can with his paw.

          “Oh, food!” Marinette yelped, dropping the half of her hair she’d been in the process fixing. She turned to him, grabbing the tin and starting to pull it open. He watched her, his head tipped to the side at the sight of her with her hair down. In a word, it was enormously cute. In seven words, _God I wish I was a human._

          The cookie tin crashed down in front of him, and he crouched slowly down, eyes on her as he picked up a cookie in his mouth, chewing slowly (ignoring the bits that dropped) as he watched her fix her hair, mesmerized in the actions. She had red ribbons too…. He really needed to pay more attention to his surroundings.

          “Marinette?”

          “Coming, Maman!” Marinette called, brushing her bangs the proper way with her fingers and turning, rushing towards the trapdoor. She paused with it halfway open, and glanced back at him, and let out a groan of irritation. “Stay!” she said. She moved down the stairs some, and just as her head began to disappear, it popped up again. “Right there. Don’t touch anything. Especially Tikki. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

          And then she was gone, just like always, as if she’d never been there at all. At least, that was the impression. In actuality, he was surrounded by her every inspiration and interest, if it was anything to judge by the sewing stuff strewn across the desk just across the cookie tin.

          _Marinette is Ladybug._


	4. Meowy Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special creature, double feature. Blah. Here's a second chapter for the day! You can expect more next thursday!

Marinette is Ladybug.

          Even after she left, the words echoed around in his head, spinning like a never ending whirlpool. Half of him wanted to betray her order and follow her down the stairs, just to keep her within sight, to keep himself assured that this wasn’t some sort of dream. Of course, his complete dilemma kept coming back to him as well. He knew she was Marinette, and he knew that they knew each other both suited and non, but at the same time, she didn’t, and he had no way of communicating that. As if to make it worse, his father was probably livid by now.

          It’s not that he was worried about missing any huge ‘family get-together’ or anything. After all, he doubted that his father had even remembered to get him anything. He’d gotten his father something, but he doubted that would help, even considering that it was locked up in his room, a couple blocks away. In actuality, all he had to do today was sit through a photoshoot, some occasion preparing for his father’s New Years’ line.

          _That’s all cancelled…_ he thought, leaning down and picking up another cookie gently in his teeth, chewing as best he could with his new fangs before swallowing. Now that he had a moment to really think about it, it seemed almost intuitive to realize that she was Ladybug. They had the same hairstyle, for one. The same “get up and go” attitude when it came to problems, the same happy blue eyes. The same curves…

          Shaking his head to clear it, Adrien glanced around the room, not really sure at all what to do with himself. Especially for a few _hours._ There wasn’t even anything to read, even if he’d had some sort of way to turn the pages. Bat at them until they flipped over? He could escape somehow and take a walk… but Marinette (that still felt weird to even think about) wouldn’t agree with that in a million years. Sighing, Adrien flopped down onto his stomach, resting his head onto his paws. It figured that the moment he finally finds himself free of obligations and things to do, he finds himself bored instead. Still, he’d prefer this to a photoshoot. He’d prefer it more if he had hands rather than paws and a mouth that could actually produce understandable sounds. Then he could show her who he really is, and then just maybe he’d win his lady’s heart.

          Even that mere thought had him releasing a happy sigh, rolling on to his back… right off the edge of the desk. He let out a yowl of surprise, even as his tail instinctively swung to the side, turning his body quickly so that he ended up landing lightly on his paws. He opened his eyes, which had been tightly closed in preparation for hitting the floor, and looked around in surprise. _Oh,_ he thought, glancing around self-consciously as if to be sure nobody had seen.

          “You know, you can do all the things cats can. Just act like you normally do and you should be fine.”

          Adrien turned his head curiously, his ears allowing him to pinpoint the noise clearly even before his eyes drifted to the edge of Marinette’s bed far above his head. A small red head poked above the wooden railing, head tipped to the side, blue eyes watching him as if he were no more than a ghost. A kwami, like Plagg, but Adrien could tell even from this one look that she was probably a lot friendlier than Plagg was, especially if she wasn’t taking that opportunity to tease him rather than attempt to help. Keeping in mind that he couldn’t talk this time, he nodded his head, sitting down and curling his tail around his paws to show that she had his attention. What had Ladybug said her name was again? He remembered hearing it last night at some point… something with a T. Or was it a K?

          “I’m Tikki,” the kwami said, giving him a happy blink and rising up above the railing, settling herself down on the edge. “I can’t come down now, as you heard earlier. We’ll try to figure out how to get you and Plagg out of this soon.”

          Another nod came with a quick jerk of his head. His conversation skills were quite limited in this form, he was quickly discovering. How do you make a pun when you’re a cat? And there were so many he could make. _So. Many._ It almost hurt, the amount of puns he couldn’t make on this situation.

          Seemingly deciding that the conversation is over, Tikki disappeared behind the bed again. Maybe she was still sleepy? Adrien wasn’t sure. Either way, she took his only outlet from this boredom away from her. The recent discovery still coursed through his veins, leaving him practically bouncing back and forth on his fe-pawpads in eagerness to do something, _anything._ As it was, however, all he could do was sit down, laying his head on his paws. He closed his eyes, mentally running through all the instances Marinette and Ladybug had shown their similarities to him, and he hadn’t noticed.

 

          “Chat?”

          The soft voice caused Adrien’s ears to prick even before he was fully awake, lifting his head and opening his eyes blearily. Had he fallen asleep? He didn’t remember doing so…

          His eyes fell upon a pair of blue orbs, so close to his own that he jumped slightly in surprise, the fur on his back instinctively raising a bit in surprise. A giggle escaped from the being leaning over him, and Marinette moved away, turning back to her room. It looked the same, other than a small pile of gifts on the floor near the window.

          “I- I have to go out with A- a frie-,” she paused, as if confused as to what to do. Then she let out a sigh, and Adrien tipped his head to the side curiously, rising to his feet and making quick work of leaping onto the desk, and wandering over to the closest point on her desk to where she stood. “My friend, Alya, and I, are going shopping. Hopefully, I can convince her to go to the museum, and maybe we can see if the Egyptian exhibit can help us any. Though, I’m not sure how much we’ll find if even Tikki doesn’t know how to fix this.”

          “Trying is better than sitting around and waiting for something to happen,” Tikki called from her spot up on the bed. Adrien glanced over at her, his head tipping to the side. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a small motion as Marinette nodded happily before turning away once more, heading towards her closet. Adrien watched quietly, his ears pricking up in curiosity. Was she getting ready to leave now?

          _Why does she need a big backpack?_ He thought, his tail settling on the desk behind him as she came over, setting the backpack on the chair he’d slept on. Didn’t she usually carry around a tiny purse?

          Even that small thought a purse sent his eyes searching for the thing, realizing that’s where she must have kept Tikki the entire time.

          “We can’t leave you here alone; my parents might find you. So unfortunately, you’ll have to hide out in here and try to keep quiet. I’ll slip you in some food as I can, okay?”

          _I’m supposed to sit in a bag all day?_ Adrien looked at the bag worriedly, and heaved a sigh. _Plagg, hurry and find your way out of this._

          Even with his reluctance, however, Adrien ended up hopping obediently in the bag when Marinette held it out for him, ducking his head as a few croissants followed him inside. The front was pulled a bit, probably to make space for the few daily essentials she carried around. And maybe Tikki as well? She was supposed to stay away from him, but maybe the space between the two pockets was enough, with all the fabric in between. But if it was a magical sickness, would that affect the situation differently? Either way, he poked his head out to see Tikki shaking her head at Marinette.

          “I’ll stay in your jacket,” she said, crossing her arms. “No offense to Chat Noir and Plagg, but the farther away I am from them, the better, Marinette.”

          “Oh, true…” Marinette replied. After that, it was a simple zip of the top of the bag, and Chat Noir’s world was plunged into darkness.

 

          Marinette pulled the bag on her shoulders carefully, trying not to jostle the living creature inside. Hopefully Alya wouldn’t question her change in bag choice. _Who am I kidding? Alya will want to know everything about the bag choice, from the moment she sees it._ Letting out a resigned sigh, Marinette made her way over to the trap door, pulling it open and making her way down, her thoughts wandering even as she went down the steps.

          No matter how she looked at it, this situation seemed to be all kinds of bad. She trusted Chat, of course, but she wasn’t comfortable knowing that he knew who she was, while he was still a mystery. It was like he held all the cards, and after so long fighting Hawk Moth, she preferred the cards to be in her hands. She felt lost without them. It was almost taking over her life, this problem. She’d even found it hard to be excited about Christmas which, even though it was a muted affair in their household, due to her mother not being much of a person for it, it had usually always been a holiday she liked.

          Her thoughts had led her all the way to the shop itself, where her father and mother were back to work. They liked to work on Christmas; it was something the shop was known for. It was always a good day for customers to come in for some goodies. In fact, Christmas was the day of the year that usually got the most income. She never blamed them for it, it wasn’t as if the holiday itself took long. Besides, they’d have dinner tonight together to do any leftover celebrating they still had in them. Other than that, Marinette was free, which is how her tradition of going out with Alya for a bit every Christmas had come about.

          “Heading out now, Maman!” she called, waving to her mother as she passed by the cash register. Sabine looked up from a customer for a moment to smile and wave at her, before Marinette found herself out the door and on the street. As always, it was busy. Christmas was no exception for busy streets in a city like Paris, after all. She’d heard that other big cities in the world were just the same.

          “Marineeeette!”

          She glanced around, smiling at the sound of Alya’s voice as her friend waved at her from across the street. In her bag, Chat shifted, and the smile automatically drooped a bit. This was going to be a disaster…


	5. Chat Got Your Tongue?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.... this is a day late. Very nearly 2 days late. Missed the mark by only a half hour XD Sorry about that! Here’s your chapter for the week XD And just think, the next chapter is already 1 day closer than it was the last time I posted a chapter.

It took only a few minutes for Alya to get across the street as Marinette waited stiffly on the other side. Though, which each step she took, Marinette could feel the worry in her chest wind tighter and tighter. She’d been relatively confident that, while Alya would question her bag choice, she wouldn’t insist to look inside. Now, she wasn’t so sure. After all, she could feel the 15 or so extra pounds on her back that were practically a clear sign that she was carrying something… exotic.

“Hey, girl!” Alya said as she came over, waving with a smile. “Did you have a good morning? Get anything you really like?” It was then that her eyes caught the bag, and, as always, the journalist side of her best friend took over. “Ohhh, new bag? But, it sort of looks like that one you use whenever we have a big project and you need stuff that doesn’t fit in your purse. Whatcha got that’s big enough that it won’t fit in there?”

Bingo. Why was Alya such an open book sometimes? Or, maybe she just knew her a bit too well. Or did she look nervous enough that it was obvious something was going on? She hoped not.

Realizing that she was taking a bit longer than usual to reply, she lifted a hand to the back of her head, putting a (hopefully) normal smile on her face. “No, not really. Just some clothes and a few sewing things. How about you? Or did your brothers and sisters make too much of a mess?” She poked at her friend’s side teasingly, and Alya laughed, waving her hand away.

“No, nothing spilled this year. Mom’s making a big dinner later though, if you want to come.”

“Sorry,” Marinette replied with a smile. “Family dinner, remember? Maman and Papa and I always have one today.” Alya seemed, thankfully, distracted for the moment, making no more cementation about the bag as they started to walk down the street, no particular direction in mind. Inside the bag, she felt a shift as Chat shifted around, and she jostled the straps a bit, hopefully shaking him up a bit. She was _not_ getting her cover blown because he couldn’t sit still. Not in this lifetime.

“Where do you think we should go today? Scope the park to see if Adrien’s out for a shoot?” Alya lifted her eyebrows suggestively at her, and Marinette silently wished she could sink into the ground. At least Chat wouldn’t know who that was… hopefully.

“He’s at some sort of Christmas shoot on a set today,” she replied without thinking, waving her hand. Another jolt occurred in the bag, and she jumped slightly. Waving her hands to cover it, she feigned excitement. “Why not go to the museum?” Marinette asked, her eyes growing wide. “I heard they have a new art exhibit, and you never got to finish checking out that Egyptian plate for that Ladybug info, right?”

“Noo, finished that weeks ago. I went back after old high and mighty was loooong gone. Girl, do you even read my blog? I made a post on it.”

 _Uh-oh._ “Ahhh, I must’ve forgotten,” Marinette smiled, giggling and shrugging slightly. Tucked next to her side, Tikki poked at her lightly. She could almost hear the kwami whispering _“be careful,”._  “Maybe the art exhibit then? They could have old… Egyptian…” Alya was looking at her funny. “Art… with…” She closed in, and Marinette crouched slightly, feeling her face begin to heat up. She was terrible at lying… “Ladybug?”

“Spill,” Alya said simply, holding her hand out and flipping her fingers towards her in a ‘give it here’ motion. “There’s something off about you today, and I want to know what it is. Especially considering it probably has something to do with that bag.”

          At that moment, her backpack jerked wildly, and a hacking sound split the air, leaving both girls jumping in surprise. A chill went through Marinette’s body, starting at her head and going all the way down to her feet. “CHAT!” she squealed, quickly darting into a nearby alley and pulling off the bag, setting it in front of her, her fingers flying to open the zipper. As soon as it opened, a rancid stench hit her nose, and she reeled back, coughing. Ignoring the watching eye of Alya, she covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve and peered inside.

          Chat looked up at her mournfully, panting slightly, his entire body shaking. He leapt up out of the bag, reeling over to the wall and letting out another hard hacking sound.

          “Chat?” she said worriedly, leaving the (now puke-filled) bag and making her way over to him, hesitantly putting a hand on his back.

          “Chat? You got a _cat_ and named it after _Chat Noir?_ We need to work on your name choices.”

          “Nononono!” Marinette said, turning her head to her and waving one of her hands wildly back and forth, the other absently petting Chat as he stood, shaking, reeling from his latest gagging episode. “He’s… He’s a stray! And, and I saw him last night... and he looked hungry, and it just sort of happened! _Don’t tell anybody!”_

          Alya looked at her blankly for a moment, then smiled sympathetically. “I won’t, girl. I like cats, I just didn’t tag you as a cat person.” _You have no idea,_ Marinette thought. “I won’t tell anybody, cross my heart. But we should probably take it to a vet or something. Is he getting better now?”

          Marinette turned her attention back to Chat, whose shaking had lessened. Slowly the fur on his back, previously determinedly raised, despite her stroking hand, fell flat, his tail falling to the ground behind him. Shakily, he sat, and turned his gaze to her, the bell glinting in the sunlight as he mewed plaintively, giving her what she assume was a confused expression. “I-I think so,” she replied, tentatively reaching out her arms. Chat flicked his tail and jumped up to her, letting himself be flipped belly up as she stood, cradling him in her arms. One part of her mind noticed that his back paws had little white stockings, but she figured now wasn’t the time to find something like that cute. “I don’t know why he’s sick though, he was fine all last night and this morning.”

          “Maybe he ate something he wasn’t supposed to when you weren’t looking?” Alya asked, already on her phone, web search in progress. “We’ll see what cats are allergic to, considering you and I both know you didn’t feed him cat food, whatever you _did_ feed him. After all, you live at a bakery, not a pet store.” Alya’s face fell flat after she finished that sentence, and Marinette found her eyebrows coming together in worry, ignoring Chat poking his tail and nose at her and leaning over to look at the phone.

          “Girl, please say you didn’t just feed him something from the store,” Alya said, glancing over at her accusingly.

          Marinette’s eyes widened, and she looked down at Chat, who tipped his head to the side, giving her a pained expression. “I may have fed him a chocolate chip cookie or two,” she said, her voice small. “It was the first thing I found.”

          Alya let her face fall into her hand, heaving the same sigh she always did when Marinette did something forgetful. Only this time, it was less forgetful, and more _stupid._ “Cats are _allergic_ to wheat and chocolate. Well, I’m not sure allergic is the right word, but they’re not supposed to eat it. It’s on the list of things they can’t digest.”

          Marinette narrowed her eyes worriedly, shifting Chat to one arm so she could pick up the backpack, slinging it over her shoulder. “I don’t think I can afford a vet, Alya. Is there anything that’s on there that lets us avoid it?” _Not to mention taking a superhero who thinks he’s a cat that somehow got turned into a real cat to a vet would be a bad idea._ She had no way of knowing if he was different from what a real cat functioned like.

          Alya was silent for a moment, her eyes flicking back and forth as her eyes scanned the page for the requested information. “Just stuff about taking it to the vet,” she said. “There’s apparently a vet on… Saint-Saens… and Saint-Dominique. I’m sure if we take it in, and say that it’s a stray we saw puking up what looked like chocolate, they might take pity on us and give us a pill or something.”

          Letting out a small sigh of relief, Marinette nodded. “Okay. We can try Saint-Saens first, at least it’s a bit closer. Can you hold him for a second? I want to zip this up. The stink is kind of bad.”

          “Yup,” Alya said, easily taking a compliant Chat from her arms (compliant until she started petting and cuddling him sympathetically) and watching silently as Marinette turned, zipping up the backpack quickly before pulling it on her back, careful to avoid jostling Tikki, still hidden inside of her jacket.

          The walk to the vet was generally silent, Chat managing to take Alya’s coddling most of the way. It wasn’t until they were only a block away that he started squirming because she had been picking at his back paws, exclaiming how cute the little socks were. Luckily, Alya escaped unscathed, or Mariette wasn’t quite sure Alya would be doing anything less than the opposite of cuddling to him anymore.  And so, as they walked into the vet, it was Marinette holding a black cat in her arms, and not Alya.

          As luck would have it (Or maybe as ladybugs would have it) the vet that was available to talk to them took sympathy on them. “If he’s already gotten it out of his system, he should be okay. I’ll give you something to give him if the symptoms continue, however. I’d suggest making sure he has lots of water and rest tonight, if you plan on taking him home. If you aren’t planning on keeping him, there are plenty of shelters that I’m sure would take him in. Plus, he’s cute, so he’d get adopted soon enough.”

          Marinette nodded, stumbling slightly as the woman released Chat and he jumped towards her, his claws grazing her skin as he propped himself up on her shoulders, his tail curled around her neck. _That little…_ she thought, resisting the urge to shove him off. She knew for a fact that he knew that he was taking advantage of the situation. But, as it was, all she could do was smile, and scratch his head lightly before making her way out, a small bottle in hand.

          “Good luck?” Alya asked as they walked out, glancing warily up at Chat, as if he might scratch at her.

          “Good luck,” Marinette replied with a smile. A sudden ring caught both of their attention, and Alya looked down at her phone. “AMBER Alert,” she said, just as Marinette’s phone followed hers in its ring.

          “Marinette, you might want to look at this one,” Alya said, her eyes wide. Her grip had tightened on her phone, knuckles white. Immediately, Marinette grew worried. Were Alya’s siblings okay? Her hands fumbled as she pulled her phone from her pocket, nearly dropping it in her haste to see what was wrong.

          The sudden sharp piercing of claws on her shoulder was barely noticed as her eyes caught two words that turned that chill to cold, hard ice.

          _Adrien Agreste._


	6. Time for a-greste

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is a day late, and it's a bit shorter than usual... I blame writers block D: Sorry, I'll try to be on time next week.

****

The typical description didn’t even hit her mind. Just the words “Adrien Agreste” staring up at her from her phone, _from an AMBER Alert,_ was enough to leave her practically hyperventilating. “Wha-What-I mean- Friday- he- he was at school on Friday!”

          Marinette turned her gaze to a worried looking Alya. “What happened? Isn’t he always with his driver or his father’s assistant? Or somebody else? Who would even kidnap him?”

          “Well, he is a model, and his father’s pretty well off. Probably some sort of money deal, if you had to ask me,” Alya said, looking reluctant to be so truthful about it.

          Letting out a small meow, Chat leaned his face against hers for a small moment, letting his tail curl around her neck. Marinette didn’t bother pushing him away, simply sighing and closing her phone, knowing that the more she looked at it, the more worried she’d be. She’d rather not make it worse, more so than it already was going to be.

          After all, she couldn’t even turn into Ladybug to try to help, and Chat Noir was as out of service as you could be, if you discount his itty bitty claws and the tiny teeth. That, and this wasn’t an akuma incident. Kidnappers weren’t widely destructive and attention-catching, as the akumas were. It wouldn’t be easy for her to simply go find him, even if she _could_ find a way to transform.

          All in all, she’d just have to leave it up to the police, and sit back, worrying. And for a girl who was used to doing things herself, no matter what it was or how dangerous, it made her more frustrated than anything.

          “This is so bad…” she muttered, her hands tightening on the straps of the backpack. “What if he’s hurt?”

          Alya looked a bit uncomfortable, as if she didn’t know quite what to say. Marinette guessed they were both falling out of their element.

          “I-I don’t know,” Alya said, her shoulders falling up, then down as she shrugged.

          Marinette leaned against a building, letting out a heavy sigh. “I don’t think I’m in the mood to shop anymore, Alya. I think I might just go home and let Chat rest for a bit.”

          Alya nodded, shoving her phone into her pocket. “I get ya. I think I’ll take a walk or something, then head home. Call me if you want to hang out or something, okay?”

          “Will do!” Marinette said, putting on a (somewhat fake) smile and turning, starting at a walk back towards home.

          “Meow?” Chat asked, looking at her curiously. She could practically hear what he was asking, and none of it made her any happier than she already _wasn’t_.

          “I’m fine, Chat. Or, I will be. I’m just worried about him,” Marinette said, attempting to channel some of her more Ladybug-esque side and seem less freaked out than she was. “Anyway, is going to the museum really worth it? After all, Tikki doesn’t know what’s going on.”

          Chat shrugged his shoulders, or attempted to. It turned into some weird bounce of his body. Was that because he couldn’t figure out how to move right yet, or did cats not have the ability to shrug? She didn’t dwell much on that question, not feeling much like it.

          “I’m not sure,” Tikki replied after jabbing a quick poke into Marinette’s side to get her attention. “After all, it could have happened to one of the others. I’ve always been around Chat, but all the other kwamis have been all over the place.”

          “You think they may have been on the stone tablet too?” Marinette asked, glancing down. Chat’s head followed hers in that motion, green eyes shining with curiosity.

          Tikki shrugged, her eyes narrowed slightly. “I don’t remember seeing them...”

          Marinette sighed, her hand coming up to rub at her face softly. “I don’t want to go all the way there just to look out what we saw before. I scoured that tablet when I was there, and I couldn’t even find anything Ladybug related, let alone some other kwami.

          “Then we go back and try to figure out a way to fix this on our own,” Tikki said poking her head out to smile at her. “After all, I don’t want to be stuck as an _actual_ Ladybug.”

          “Neither do I,” Marinette replied, reluctant laughter in her voice. “Do you want to go to the park then? We can sit for a moment and figure this out. I don’t want to end up killing him before he’s normal again, so we’ll have to look up some information on cats.” Her eyes turned to him, smiling as his pupils widened the moment her eyes met his. “Do you know anything about cats other than how to make puns about them?”

          She wasn’t really in the mood to laugh, but it was hard not to when a cat suddenly lifts his paw and wiggles it back in forth in some sort of ‘so-so’ expression. Although, her worry was betrayed by the fact that what usually would have left her weak with laugher just brought a few small giggles out of her. “Okay, then the Internet it is. We might end up having to feed you cans of tuna or something if cookies and such are a bad thing. That’s the only food we have a real surplus of. That, and bread.”

          The walk to the part didn’t take long, considering that most of it was filled with Marinette scouring for all the foods and things cats couldn’t eat or be around, and listing them out one by one. She figured he’d remember most of them. If not, she was trying to remember them even as she spoke. But, he should be worried enough about his life to freak out if she tries to feed him Tikki’s leftovers again. Settling herself on a bench, she let her body slump slightly, letting out a heavy sigh.

“I just realized that I have no idea how I’m going to get you back inside with a puke-filled backpack. Not only will I have to clean it, but _somebody_ is going to notice the smell. And that’s before they get to the fact that there’s a cat on my shoulders.” Leaning forward, Marinette rested her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands, making no comment as Chat immediately tightened his claws’ grip on her shoulders to keep his balance.

“Throw him up to your balcony,” Tikki joked, sleepily resting herself on Marinette’s thigh for a moment to take advantage of her shirt falling forward slightly and covering that space.

Chat pricked his ears, flicking Marinette’s bangs with his tail.

“No, Chat, somebody will see,” she replied, not bothering to lift her head from its current position. He let out a pitiful meow in return, pushing against her before jumping down onto her lap between her arms. Attention effectively caught, Marinette looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“I’m _not_ throwing you up to the balcony!” she said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t even think I _can_ throw that far without a little bug’s help anyway.”

Letting out a huffing sigh, Chat poke her arm with a paw then jumped off of the bench. He made his way to a nearby tree, and jumped straight up.

His landing was a little bit iffy, his claws slipping some on the bark before he managed to figure out how to effectively hold himself up and steady.

“I’m not sure climbing up will work,” Marinette replied. “A building isn’t like a tree, and I’m not sure there’s all that much stuff for you to hop your way up either.”

Chat jumped back down, making his way onto the bench and sitting down, looking as if he were thinking.

“Exactly,” Marinette said, leaning back on the bench and looking up at the sky. “This is a hard problem to solve without having to wait until nighttime and sneaking in again. But what with Adrien having gone missing, I’m sure my parents will not be very happy if I’m late.”

Looking a bit uncomfortable, the black cat curled his tail around his paws, leaning to the side so one white-tipped back paw stuck out. His ears even tipped back slightly, and Marinette stared from the corner of her eye for a moment before reaching out, poking him in the shoulder.

“We’ll figure out something, don’t worry,” she said. “You won’t end up sleeping outside or anything. I just don’t want my parents to know I’m technically harboring a cat. Cats and bakeries don’t really mix, after all. That’s why we don’t have any pets.”

A scream sounded suddenly, a street or so away. Barely seconds after it went off, both cat and girl were on their feet, the complete realization of ‘we’re in trouble now’ somehow identical on their faces despite the species difference.

“Chat, your bad luck is spreading.”


	7. You Thought Wrong

“Marinette!” Tikki scolded her wielder lightly, a little tap on her side an indication as to what the kwami felt about that comment.

“Joking, joking, Tikki,” Marinette replied distractedly, standing. “We need to get rid of that akuma.”

“You need to put Chat somewhere away from us then,” Tikki replied. “Or we could be at more risk than we already have been.”

Thinking quickly, Marinette jumped to her feet, running to a nearby trashcan and crouching down. “Tikki, transform me!”

Darting around back to the bench, Marinette- now Ladybug- grabbed Chat Noir quickly around the middle, ignoring the cat’s sharp mew of alarm. She ran in the direction of the screams pausing only a moment by the bakery.

She looked at Chat for a moment, the cat looking back at her somewhat curiously. Then, smiling, she brought her hands back, hurling him high in the air in the direction of the balcony. His yowl of protest was quickly sent away with the wind. Patting her hands together, she smiled. “Now that the cat’s away, the ladybug can play.” _Marinette you did not just make that pun._

Letting out a sigh, Ladybug swung her yo-yo at a nearby lamppost and was off, leaving behind a grumpy cat, sitting safely – among the dirt of a shattered flowerpot.

The ‘akuma’ ended up being just a guy attempting to steal a woman’s purse. Well, at least, in the end, she’d gotten Chat upstairs, and the woman was safely home. Of course, by that time, it was getting dark enough that she had no doubt she was going to be late for dinner. As she landed on the balcony, she released the transformation, letting out a leaden sigh at the sight of the shattered plant. “I suppose that’s my fault,” she muttered, making her way towards the hatch into the room and dropping down onto her bed.

At least, that had been the plan, until a loud yelp sounded through the air as her body hit the mattress. A yelp that wasn’t connected to a cat, but a boy with a mop of blonde hair.

And green eyes.

And also the same face as every picture on her walls.

“ADRIEN?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What starts as a shitpost ends as a shitpost. All done.


End file.
